Becoming Ashur
by Isa Lumitus
Summary: A new man appears in Jump City. But what does he want? Is he a friend or a foe of the Titans? Complicated love 'triangle' in later chapters. Rated for language, likely descriptions, future violence, and how much you'll hate me when you read the ending.
1. Prologue

He suddenly fell, his head slamming into a rock, rendering him unconscious. His last thought was something to the effect of _Dammit! They could've been more gentle!_ He woke up later, his only memories were the words he had just thought earlier. Though he remembered the words, he couldn't remember why he had thought them, who 'they' were, or what they could've been more gentle about. Then the cacophony of starlight, scents, and sounds of the sea had him about to pass out.

He closed his eyes, closed his ears, and closed his nostrils. _How did I do that? I didn't think it was possible for humans to close their noses or ears..._ He still felt overwhelmed by the information pouring into him from his skin. He felt the sand under his seated form, the jagged rock he'd hit digging into his back, and the caress of the sea breeze. He felt a couple sand fleas climb his legs, and thought he felt a wall behind him, although how he could do it without it touching him was unknown.

_Okay, I can deal with this. I just need to get used to my senses one at a time_. Once he felt better, he let his nostrils open. They flooded his mind with knowledge. He smelled his blood on the rock behind him, and the sand and rocks, themselves. He smelled the ocean, and thought he smelled the presence of fish _under the water_. There was also a melange of smells that could only be a city about a mile away.

_How are my senses this keen? What is going on?_ He thought as he opened his ears. He heard the waves crashing a few feet in front of him, and the call of some nocturnal bird far overheard. The echos confirmed that there was wall behind him, and he heard a car horn honk in the distance. he heard a faint _fwizz_ as a sand flea leaped from his hair to fly past his ear. None of this prepared him for what he saw when he opened his eyes, though.

Despite it being night, he could see as well as he ever had in the day. Further, he was more aware of colors than ever before. _That's odd,_ he thought, _my eyes don't average colors anymore_. By this he meant that the green sign and the scraggly plants looked different. The plants were truly green, but he could tell that the sign was painted by a mixture of blue and yellow paint. As if that torrent of additional information wasn't enough, he could see more colors than before. No human had seen them before, so they had no names. There were no words to describe them, either. One was the next step in a continuance from green to blue to purple, while the other was after yellow, orange, and red. He noticed that his body, and most of the beach glowed with this second color. _Am I really seeing infra-red and ultra-violet? _The warmthrising from the beach suggested that night had only recently fallen.

He stood, feeling an odd weight on his back, and something sharp brush his spine. He looked over, and gaped at what he saw. There were wings growing out of his back. Wings! Six green feathered wings. His hair was fused into sharp spines, and extended down to the small of his back. Like the wings, his hair was also green. _When did this happen?_ He wondered. He remembered almost nothing, and the fragments he could recall said that he was an average human. _Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. Besides, this new body has great potential._

He climbed up part of the cliff behind him, and then leaped off to soar into the night. Or at least, that's what he intended to do. What actually happened was more accurately described as a face first dive into the sand. _Looks like I don't know how to fly_. He stood back up, and closed his senses as he focused on the inside of himself. He searched for some instinctive knowledge of how to fly, something locked in his muscles, just as a bird has some instinct on how to fly. It worked.

With a gasp of understanding, he leaped into the sky, the strangely familiar pattern of wing-beats carrying him over the sea. As he flew, he experimented with the pattern of wing-strokes, and found that he only needed four of his six wings to fly. The other two made him more maneuverable, and let him glide on the fading thermals more easily. The other two also made sure that he'd be able to fly if one or two of his wings somehow got broken. Feeling the euphoric high of absolute freedom, he flew toward the city.

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Well, what did you think? I know, I know, it's a lousy fanfic in that the first chapter was only about an original character. Consider this a prologue. The real first chapter will contain some familiar names, but it'll be from this original character's view, I think. And no, I don't want you to know this character's name yet, since he doesn't know it either. I put good odds that most of you can already guess, though.

I've already written the second chapter, but I'm not posting it until a couple people give this one a good review. And if no one does, well, I'll leave the rest of this junk on my hard-drive, where it'll get lost the next time I have to format it.


	2. Chapter 1

As he swooped toward the city, the nameless man flew over an island that contained a T-shaped tower. It's presence gave him a sense of deja vu, and made him wonder exactly where it fit into his forgotten past. He knew that a group of important people lived there, but nothing more. _Oh well_, he thought. _I'll find out more about them later_.

Given how he had nothing, and people probably wouldn't trust a weird-looking man that only wore tattered shorts, he figured that the first thing he needed was money. Once he had money, he could buy shelter, clothing, and food. After that, he could worry about what he had become, and how he had gotten here. The problem though, was how to get the money. Begging or doing work wouldn't provide enough money quickly enough, which left only one option: robbing a bank.

He didn't remember doing it at any time in his past, but that it was his first thought made him wonder if he had once been a thief. Once again, he decided to push that thought away as he focused on the here and now. It didn't matter if he had stolen before, all that mattered was figuring out how to rob the bank without getting caught. He found a suitable target in short order, and landed in an alley behind it. Looking at a nearby doorway, he was impressed at how small it was. Then he noticed that he'd barely fit into most of the cars, and that even the dumpsters were much smaller than they should be. _Either I'm in a city of midgets, or I'm taller than I used to be_, he deduced. _I must be almost eight feet tall, or else everyone here is about four feet tall._

The first step in robbing a bank is to plan the escape. A short distance down one of the nearby alleys revealed a manhole between the buildings. Evidently, a street had once been here, but a restructuring of the city had allowed buildings to be made on it. The manhole was not forgotten, though. A padlock secured its cover to the cement. The amnesiac reached out to grab the lock, and tried to rip it off the cover. As he pulled, it hurt his arm, but the lock gave with a loud cracking noise. Instead of the fixture breaking, something inside the lock had given, allowing it to be opened with out the key. _Not what I expected, but no complaints here_.

The sewer drain was a tight fit, but not really an obstacle. He could see easily by the oddly colored light radiating from his body. The sewer was mostly empty, but connected to larger, filthier, tunnels. He followed them for a bit until he found a good exit. On the way back, he dowsed his arm in some relatively clean water. As he suspected, the cold lessened the glow coming from his skin. _Well, at least I know for a fact that I'm able to see infra-red_, he thought as he climbed back into the alley.

The next step of the robbery was to figure out how to get in without setting off the alarms. The winged man had no idea how to find or avoid alarms, so he settled for the next best thing, cutting the power to the building. Dropping a dumpster on some nearby power lines cut off the electricity to a few blocks, including the one containing the bank. "Shit," he said aloud as he heard sirens in the distance. He had to think of a way to distract the police until he could complete the robbery. He settled on smashing a window of a jewelry store that was on the edge of the blackout zone, then flying into the night just before the cops arrived.

_With the cops distracted by the jewelry store, they should think that it was the target, rather than the bank_, he figured. _So that means I should have a few minutes to do the rest of this_. With a hope that he was right, he twisted himself in-flight so that his back would collide with a group of the bank's second story windows.

Heralded by a shower of broken glass, the winged man arrived inside the office portion of the bank. He had a myriad of tiny cuts, but nothing life-threatening. Ignoring the dropping blood, and the shards of glass in his feet, the amnesiac hurried to the ground floor, where he'd find the entrance to the main vault.

The vault was a giant, hollow chunk of steel, set in an even larger chunk of cement. The door to the vault was even taller than the winged man, and looked like it could survive a nuclear blast. _No way I can muscle that open, even with my newfound strength_, he thought while trying to figure out how it was supposed to open in non-robbery situations. Guessing by the wires, the vault had to be opened through a command from the computers. Computers that no longer had power. "SHIT!" he exclaimed for the second time that night. The green-haired man was about to destroy the monitor in frustration when he noticed that there was a glowing LED on the computer's power strip. _Backup power supply for the vault, but not for the security system? Why would a bank owner do that?_ he wondered. Then immediately understood. Just as the words "Insurance fraud" crossed his lips, a motorcycle crashed through the front door of the bank.

A burly man with dirty hair stepped off the bike with a swagger. He might have looked intimidating, but not to the winged man. The newcomer only came up to the winged man's elbow, and therefore wasn't much of a threat. The amnesiac ignored him as he turned on the computer. "Who the hell are you, and what the fuck is going on here?" The man demanded. He tried to sound tough, but seemed only like a petulant child.

"I have no name, and I'm here to rob this bank," he said as the computer demanded a password. "My guess is that you're here for the same thing, and that the president of the bank gave you the password to open the vault," the tall man said as he stepped away from the computer and gestured to it invitingly.

"How'd you know that?" The biker said in astonishment. Then shook his head and continued, "My name's Johnny Rancid, and I'm not lettin' you carry off my loot." Rancid then reached for a gun at his side.

"Freeze, idiot," the amnesiac said. "I'm not leaving without cash, and if we fight, the fuzz will get here before one of us wins. 'Sides, I'm sure there's a lot more cash in there than either of us can carry. Now enter the code while we still have time."

The biker bent over the keyboard, entering the password while grumbling about know-it-all winged freaks. The winged freak didn't much care since it got the door of the vault to open. Rancid immediately ran into the treasury, while the nameless man went back to the computer. Now that the password had been entered, other things could be done with the computer. The nameless man first created a new bank account, under the name 'Caliph Antinom', and tweaked the records. He made it so all the records said that the account was created five years back, and that two million dollars were added, in ten to twenty thousand dollar increments. Since all the yearly reports now showed that the account had long been there, it should be beyond suspicion.

After creating the new account, 'Antinom' changed a random guy's account. All he did was add 25 million dollars to that account, with no attempt to pre-date it, or hide that this phantom deposit occurred in the middle of the night. Upon finishing this, the winged man erased all keystroke logs and records of the computer ever being turned on. Business finished, he stood up and cracked his back to the accompaniment of approaching sirens. Johnny was just walking out of the vault bent under the weight of a huge sack full of cash.

"You were right," he said simply. "If you want anything, I'd hurry up. I'm gettin' the fuck out of here while I still can." With that, the biker hopped onto his bike and rode out of the bank.

The winged man quickly ran into the vault, stuffed a bag full of random bundles of bills, and fled. He did it all in about ten seconds. As he exited the second-floor window, he heard a megaphone boom, "PUT DOWN THE BAG AND SURRENDER, OR WE'LL FIRE," the amnesiac fell to the ground in shock before noticing that the warning wasn't directed at him.

"That's what your mom said just before I plugged her," Rancid retorted before the roar of his engine drowned out any other voices. The winged man quickly ran for the sewer entrance that he had cleared.

As he arrived in the ally, he got an excellent view of the facing street. In the street, Rancid's bike was suddenly engulfed in shadow and ripped out from under him. Five people were blocking Rancid's get-away. One wore a black mask and a cape, one was a black man with machine parts. There was a green boy that turned into an elephant before the amnesiac's eyes, and a girl in a dark blue cloak. The last person was a redheaded girl wearing a purple miniskirt. The guy in the mask spoke in an authoritive tone, "Those were some nice tricks, Johnny, but it's the end of the line. Surrender, or I'll have Raven crush your bike before we capture you."

Johnny looked at his bike, which was still wrapped in darkness, and floating about fifty feet in the air. Then Johnny looked at the dozen police cars approaching from behind. "Fuck-off!" he shouted as he drew his gun and fired. A black wall suddenly appeared in front of the costumed freaks, protecting them from the bullets. At the same time, the blackness holding the motorcycle in the air disappeared, letting it drop to the ground.

Johnny's eyes followed the bike's progress toward the pavement, watching as it seemed to move in slow motion. As it hit the ground, it crumpled a bit before disappearing in an explosion. The man without a name watched as a tear rolled down Rancid's cheek. "You bitch!" he screamed before firing his gun uselessly at the black barrier.

The green-winged man decided that he should leave before he was noticed, and ducked into the manhole to make good on his escape.

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Well, that's the second chapter. Or the first if you consider the previous to be a prologue. This is about the length I intend any future chapters to be. Either the next chapter, or the one after it, I'll start calling the original character by his name. You're probably getting just as tired of reading 'the winged man' as I'm getting of writing it.

The fact that you're reading this shows just how lucky you are. My computer's been freezing a lot lately, and will probably be formatted soon. That I'm writing this about a week before I intend it to go online means that there's still a chance that this will die unread...

I've decided to have mercy. This segment is getting posted at the same time as the prologue. Oh, and most characters won't be as foul-mouthed as Johnny. I just have him cussing a lot because it fits my image of his character.


	3. Chapter 2

It has come to my attention that the summary got truncated. Don't worry, it didn't have anything too important in it. Just a warning about how much you'll hate the ending...

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. This disclaimer wasn't present last chapter, but I didn't own TT then, either. I do own the original character however, and if you steal him I'll hunt you down and... do nothing. I don't care if you use him or my story, but if by some miracle you manage to make a profit, I'll try to guilt-trip you into giving me a share.

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Raven looked at Rancid, who was securely tied u**p** in what had been his bike's tai**l**pip**e**. The bike-less biker looked as **a**rrogant a**s** **e**v**e**r, and **n**one too pleased at his current situation. No one had been in**j**ured when the bike had expl**o**ded, which she attributed to luck, since there could have been a lot more shrapnel. Regardless, she thought she saw a huge man in the all**y** get clipped by **a** piece of what shrap**n**el there ha**d** been. "**R**av**e**n!" Robin's shout broke her chain of thought. "You and Star interrogate Rancid. The rest of us will go examine the bank."

Ra**v**en s**i**gh**e**d, _The good cop/bad cop routine with Starfire again. And I'll be the bad cop. Again_. At least she **w**ouldn't need to pretend to be angry. She had been reading a really good book before the alarm had shattered the calm of the night. She led the metal-bound criminal into the ally where she thought she had seen the giant. Starfire stayed behind and collected the bills that had been scattered in the fight. _The bad cop ALWAYS goes first_. There was a sewer drain in the alley, which was not a common place for them. _Maybe he really was there_, she thought, upon seeing how easily he could have 'disappeared'.

"Bank robbery's a new thing for you," she said in her drawn out monotone. "You shouldn't know anything about security systems, so I want to know who filled you in."

"There was another man! A giant! With six green wings. He made me do it," Johnny said in an attempt to shift the blame off of himself. Blackness suddenly appeared around the metal pipe binding Rancid. Only the outline of the metal was visible, a tangle of white lines being choked by shadow. Raven made the sharp edges of the pipe dig into the biker's flesh and draw a small amount of blood. Johnny made a bit of a whine.

"You expect me to believe that trash?" Raven said in an unfeigned tone of annoyance. It almost certainly wasn't the whole truth, though it validated her sighting of the tall man. "Now why don't you tell me what really happened, or I can just twist this metal to skin you alive." The half-demon turned the metal by the slightest bit, turning the previous puncture wounds into small cuts. "Don't worry, though. You won't die until the end," she said with a predatory smile.

The criminal tried to ignore the pain, and make a show of bravado. He didn't do a good job, though, as his fear was being screamed into Raven's mind. "You wouldn't," he said almost pleadingly. "What would your friends say? They never kill anyone. Or torture them," he reasoned.

Raven raised one eyebrow. "Oh? You gave yourself those cuts trying to escape," she said innocently, just before shattering that illusion with her next words. "Remember Jacob Dalton? He was found tied up with his own guts. But don't worry, that was just an 'accident'. Nothing at all like it will happen again," the sorceress finished sarcastically. Jacob Dalton never existed. She had just made the whole thing up.

"Friend-Raven," Starfire called in her annoyingly innocent voice. "Robin wants to see you at the bank. Just let me criminal the question," she said, as she was supposed to in this part of the act. Now it was Starfire's job to act like Rancid's friend.

Raven shot a look at the biker, as if to say 'You're lucky. This time' and walked out of the alley. She waited just out of sight, listening to everything, and seeing what emotions she felt from him. The whole idea behind the good cop/bad cop routine was to make the victim think that the 'good cop' was a friend, and open up. If the bad cop seemed evil enough, the criminal might spill everything in the hopes of being protected by the good cop. But Raven wouldn't object if he blubbered out the truth to her because of abject terror.

- - - - - -

Robin stood alone in the main portion of the bank. Beast Boy was sniffing around upstairs, and Cyborg was examining the computer that controlled the vault. This left Robin by himself, with an awkward feeling of uselessness. Beast Boy could track and scout, Star was strong and had powers, Raven had what amounted to telekinesis, and Cyborg was mechanically augmented. But Robin had nothing. He had gadgets, that anyone could use, and a bit of agility, that anyone could get with a bit of practice.

Robin felt like such a pretender at times like this. Everyone else had a legitimate claim to the team, but he was just a teenager acting the part of a hero. Every time he gave out instructions, he was afraid they'd say, "Why are you the leader? You're just a normal person, and shouldn't even be on the team." That fear was why he always studied and trained, instead of playing around in the downtime like everyone else. It also left him feeling guilty when everyone else was working while he 'co-ordinated'.

"Yo, Robin!" Cyborg yelled, despite the fact that he was only ten feet away. "Check this out." Robin walked over, curious.

"Found a lead?"

"According to the registry, this computer was never turned on, or used to open the vault."

Robin frowned under his eyeband. "That can't be right. We saw that the door wasn't forced open..."

"Oh, it's definitely wrong. There's no record of the computer being turned on, or used," Cyborg's voice took on a conspiratorial tone, "But there is record that it was turned _off_."

"You mean it was left on when the bank closed?"

"Nope. It was turned off at five-thirty PM, as usual. And then it was turned off again at two-forty-seven AM."

"You mean-," Robin started before getting interrupted.

"Uh-huh. Whoever opened the vault erased the record of it being opened, but couldn't erase the record of it being turned off because the computer was no longer on for him to do anything," Cyborg said, getting excited. Robin started to open his mouth, but was cut off again. "And there's more. After the bank was closed, the records say that Douglas Adams made a deposit of twenty-five million dollars at two-forty-two AM."

"Great work, Cyborg," Robin said, meaning it. "I knew there had to be someone other than Rancid. He's just not devious enough to break glass inward in two places to make it look like a second burglar was present, unless there actually were two robbers. This Mr. Adams, if not the other robber, is at least likely to be connected to him in some way."

"Yup," Cyborg agreed, yawning. "I figure that's enough for the regular police to be able to handle it. Let's see what BB found, and then hit the hay."

Beast boy chose that moment to appear. "The guy got cut pretty badly on the glass upstairs, so he left an obvious blood trial. He went into the sewers, near where Rancid is being questioned. The problem is, he stopped bleeding about twenty feet into the tunnels."

"But you can change into a dog and track his scent, right?" Robin asked, slightly annoyed. That is what he had intended BB to do to track the other robber. Robin could've followed the blood, after all.

"Oh, I did, and let me tell you, tracking by scent in the sewers really stinks. No pun intended," Beast Boy joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. "After about two-hundred feet, he left the sewers and took to the streets. But then the trail ends. It's almost as if he flew away."

"If he could fly, why didn't he just leave the bank that way," Robin wondered aloud.

"I dunno, maybe he had a flying vehicle parked at that other spot, and he couldn't land it closer to the bank," Cyborg reasoned.

"Or maybe he was like that one sludge monster guy that ate toxic waste. Y'know, he went through the sewer because it gave him subsice-substence-I mean food," Beast boy guessed.

"Oh, man. That's just gross Beast Boy. Now I won't be able to eat," Cyborg complained.

"Just as well. Your midnight snacks could give anyone a heart-attack. We should all get back to sleep. The trail's gone cold anyway," Robin said. Just as he finished, Raven and Starfire entered the bank.

"Rancid was working with the bank's president," Raven said calmly. "The president weakened the security to where Rancid would be able to get in and steal some cash. The plan was for Rancid to give half of it to the president tomorrow."

"Dude. Why would the bank's owner steal from himself?" Beast Boy wondered.

"Because insurance would pay back everything that the bank lost, and the president would make a nice profit," Cyborg explained, as if talking to an idiot. Through this whole time, Starfire was hopping about eagerly awaiting her chance to speak.

"It wouldn't have worked, though," Raven continued, basically ignoring the three's antics. "Rancid planned on keeping all the money, and then blackmailing more out of the president."

"And then a winged giant showed up and hackered the system," Star blurted out.

"Hackered?" Cyborg questioned, just as Beast Boy said, "That sounds like something I would come up with."

"Basically, Johnny said that some other guy broke in at the same time, and was more concerned with the computer than the cash," Raven explained. "He was still messing with it as Johnny left."

"I would've expected Johnny to try to say that he was forced to do it," Robin said in a curious tone.

"Oh he did," Raven said calmly. "Once he saw that we weren't buying it, he decided to tell something that sounded closer to the truth."

"A freelance winged giant/hacker/robber?" BB questioned.

"He was described as eight feet tall, with long green hair that was more like a porcupine's spines," Raven said, while thinking _This is why I hate interrogating with Starfire. I end up being the one explaining everything_. Raven would have been much happier as a silent observer of the proceedings.

"You mean it stuck up at all angles?" Robin asked, while beast boy muttered, "I can't imagine how much grease that would require."

"No. His hair was actually in hard, shiny spines about as thick as my pinky finger," Raven's tone made everyone wonder whether she was being serious or sarcastic.

"Really?" Beast Boy asked.

"It's what I said, isn't it?"

"Cool," the changeling said while trying to duplicate the effect. All he managed was to turn into a porcupine, which Robin almost tripped over. That would've really hurt. For both of them.

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Well peeps, that was the third segment. It was also written before any of these went online. That's right, I'm not writing and updating quickly, I'm just being really slow about posting all the stuff that I've already done. I figure I should always have one more on my hard-drive than is online. That way, if I'm really busy one week, I can just post that one, instead of leaving you without continuation. How much you wanna bet that I'll just use up the safety net by being lazy?

You are so lucky I'm posting this. I had told myself that I was only going to post more if people actually read it. Still, the gravy train ends if no one reviews. It's not like reviewing will make you go bankrupt or anything...


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Teen Titans.

The six-winged man sat on his bed in his seedy hotel room. Right after the robbery, he had fled the city, and come to this one. From Jump city to Star city. It made for an interesting narrative, but he figured someone did a bad job at naming the cities in the area. The bed wasn't large enough to stretch out in, but it was better than the alternative, which was an even smaller box in an alley.

The amnesiac had bought some additional clothes, and a large coat to hide his wings. It had only been a day since the robbery, but he had already spent most of the cash he had carried out of the bank. Clothes and hotel rooms weren't that expensive, but it had cost an arm and a leg to buy a perfect false ID. He wouldn't have bothered, but without it, he didn't stand a chance at accessing the account he had made. Even though he had two million dollars in that account, he couldn't waste it on niceties like a penthouse suite.

Besides, spending that kind of money would draw attention that he really didn't want. _Not that I have any choice_, he thought. Tomorrow he intended to spend almost all of the money in the account. The purpose of the robbery had been to gain investment capital. The green-haired man intended to find out as much about his new body as he could, but he'd need sophisticated equipment to do so. Two million dollars probably wasn't even enough. For that reason, the amnesiac decided to start a business.

Unfortunately, the giant's only remembered skill was chemical biology, especially genetics. And the only way to make a business from that would require him to act as something of an entrepreneur. Putting those thoughts aside, the spiky haired man turned on the TV and watched more of the news.

"The JPD has not yet found the president of the robbed bank, or the third man involved in the robbery. The third man was described as non-human, but the lack of flair in the robbery implies that no super villain or other powered individual was involved," The woman onscreen droned on. The amnesiac was glad of a skeptical media. If they had given even the most basic description of him, he'd be easily caught. However, they might not have the evidence to convict him. After all, showing that his description matched hardly mattered, since the only person to witness his presence was Rancid, and any decent lawyer could destroy the thug's credibility.

"In other news, today Jump city was attacked by Dr. Light. Light had gone on a rampage, destroying an entire city block, but was summarily captured by the Teen Titans," The tinny voice continued. The amnesiac thought he remembered the Teen Titans, but couldn't say where he had heard of them before. He wanted to do a quick internet search, but his cheap room didn't come with a connection, or a computer. Instead, he resolved that he'd go meet them in person sometime. Soon.

- - - - -

Raven stopped meditating and opened her eyes. Meditation was like sleep: very pleasant to an extent, but after a certain point it only wasted time, and was unpleasant to boot. The sorceress flexed her mind, calling on the shadows within her, and fell through the floor. She landed in the kitchen, as she had many times before. Chanting for over an hour on end tended to dry her throat, too.

As she started heating water for her tea, Raven reveled in the silence of the tower. It was only quiet when everyone else was away for whatever reason. _It's strange_, Raven thought, _I fear that they'll reject me, yet I'm glad when they are gone._ _Perhaps it's because this is one of the few occasions when I'm at peace_. Whenever the others were present, she was afraid one would say, "Why are you even here? You only cut other people down. The only reason we've put up with you this long is for your skills. It's not worth it. Go join Slade or something, it'll make it easier for the real good guys to beat him."

Once the water was just starting to boil, she took it off the burner and added the tea itself. I really should try to be less sarcastic, Raven thought as she poured some into a mug. _But they state such obvious or idiotic ideas that I can't help it. _Maybe if she kept it up, Beast Boy would grow up a bit. _I won't get my hopes up. Besides, at least this way I can enjoy myself._

About halfway through her tea, one of tower's proximity alarms went off, and was followed by a loud knocking on the front door. She clenched a fist in annoyance. It was probably Cyborg, testing out a battering ram against the security system, on the pretense that he had 'accidently' locked himself out. Given that he had a radio transmitter built into him, Raven was sure he could have electronically disabled the security system if he wanted to. _'If he wanted to' being the key phrase_, she thought in annoyance. _Boys will be boys. And they always want to try out their toys._

The half-demon sighed. _I'd best go answer it. No one else is here to do it, and if Cyborg gets in without me greeting him he'll chew _me _out for being lax about security_. She concentrated as before, and fell through floors until she reached the ground floor. The knocking never stopped, but went in a pattern of three loud thumps, then about five seconds of quiet before three more loud thumps. "All right, all right. I'm opening the door, Cyborg. _I _don't want to waste money on a new door," she said vexedly as she pulled open the huge portal.

"Greetings," a man said. A man who was definitely not Cyborg. He matched Rancid's description almost exactly. Eight feet tall, six wings with green feathers, spiny green hair down to the waist. As described, the 'hair' looked shiny, like it was made out of whatever fingernails were made of. He was framed by the rising sun in such a way that it formed a halo, as if he were a messenger of the gods. He might also have been the man Raven had seen in the alley, but she'd only gotten a glimpse then, and couldn't be sure. "This is the home of the Teen Titans, correct?"

Raven was taken aback by his odd manner of acting, as if it was completely normal to show up at someone's door, and begin conversing without even an introduction. She wasn't too worried, though. All she felt from him was a mild curiosity, rather than the hostile or deceitful intent that she would expect from a criminal. The man brushed at his temple as if to clear away a cobweb. Could he feel her touch on his mind? She decided it'd be best to be more careful. "Yes," She said cautiously, "Anyone in the town could have told you that," she continued, back to speaking in her normal tones.

"Yes, but anyone in town could have also told me that there's a man in the sky that's always watching us and will judge us when we die. You're Raven, correct?"

Raven smiled in spite of herself. "Yes, and you are?" She said as she stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

The man looked up for a moment, lost in thought. "I don't have a name. Not that I remember, anyway. How about you call me... Ashur."

Ashur. It sounded familiar to the sorceress, but she couldn't remember where. She'd look for it in one of her books later. "Well, Ashur, it's fairly cold down here, why don't we continue this conversation on the roof?" Raven asked as she started to fly upward. The winged man agreed and flew with her.

Raven didn't care about the cold. There were other reasons she wanted to move to the roof. The first was that if they fought, her friends were more likely to be able to see from the city, than if they fought where they were right now. The other reason was that if they fought, well, there wasn't anything _she _cared about on the roof.

"What's this about not having a name, and why haven't you ever heard of us?" she asked, once they where one the roof's volleyball court. At the same time, she cautiously tried to touch his mind again. But as she reached out, she felt something block her path. Whatever blocked her mind felt cold, hard, and smooth, like a sheet of metal. She gave a small gasp of surprise, then hoped that he didn't associate it with the removal of whatever he felt.

Ashur raised an eyebrow at her, but otherwise didn't acknowledge her reaction to the strange shield. "I woke up three nights ago on the beach. I could remember _things,_ like how to read, and what happens when potassium is thrown in water. But I couldn't remember _events_, such as any of my past. I didn't know anything about the area, but for some reason, the Teen Titans and this tower seem familiar."

Raven wondered why Ashur was being so open, but also doubted that he was lying. She didn't try to pick up anything from his mind, though. "Maybe you were once a hero of some sort. People with... improvements over standard people are usually heros," _or villains_, she silently added. For some reason, once people got power, they became either good or evil. It made the half-demon wonder if perhaps the people got their powers because they were good or evil, rather than the other way around.

"I rather doubt that. I remember thinking that this body wasn't mine when I woke up on the beach. At the time I thought I should be a normal human."

"But not anymore?" _If he doesn't think he could be a hero, does that mean he thinks of himself as a bad guy?_

"I remember that I remembered my body as human. I can't remember what my original body was like, but I know that I was able to remember it on that first night. Even on that first night, there was the knowledge that I had forgotten certain things, but I can no longer even remember exactly which things."

There was a faint vibration in the tower that Raven recognized as the elevator. Evidently, the others had arrived in the T-car, by driving through the tunnel that connected the small island to the mainland. "How do you know that your memories of being human aren't merely a dream," Raven asked, annoyed that he hadn't seen the obvious answer. But her natural state was to be angry because the people around her didn't grasp the obvious.

"You were probably flying from somewhere far away, when you fell out of the sky for some reason. If you knocked your head, it could easily erase some memories." The theory made sense to Raven, except that there should be evidence of head trauma if he took a blow hard enough to erase memories only three days ago.

"That might be the case, but something tells me it isn't true," Ashur said as the door on the roof opened. Cyborg walked out first, followed by the other Titans.

"Hey Raven," Cyborg said in greeting. "Who's your 'little' friend?"

Ashur opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Robin. "Are you a bank robber?" the Boy Wonder asked flat out.

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Well, another chapter done. I know it's a bit shorter than the others. Oh well. I know I said I'd write this one _after_ reading your reviews, but I was bored. It's 4AM between Saturday and Sunday (Damn time changes). I should be loading the first section tomorrow evening. If you're reading this, it means no mean reviewers have shattered my flimsy self-confidence yet.

In case you where wondering, if you throw potassium metal into water, it explodes. It'd be really nice if some people reviewed, if for no other reason than to show that this is actually being read...

THE POWER OF ASHUR COMPELS YOU!


	5. Chapter 4

**Isa:** Greetings, people. I think I'll copy someone else and have Robin say the disclaimer.

**Robin: **Huh? What makes you think that I'll say the stupid disclaimer?

**Isa:** The fact that I can make you say it.

**Robin:** Oh. Isa Lumitus doesn't own Teen Titans. But if you steal the plot or Ashur I'll hunt you down, the same as I would any other criminal.

**Isa: **Thank you, Robin.

**Robin:** Bastard! Why'd you make me say all that?

**Isa:** Because I could. Now, repeat what you just said, but politely.

**Robin: **Thank you for giving me the chance to speak the disclaimer, I'm honored.

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Robin stepped out onto the roof. Thanks to the tower's security system, he knew two people were on the roof. Thanks to the communicator, he knew one was Raven. Out on the rooftop, Robin saw someone that matched the description Rancid had given. Raven wasn't in a fighting stance or anything, so he figured that there was no immediate threat from the winged giant. Just the same, Robin felt like being blunt. "Are you a bank robber?" he asked.

The man laughed a bit before answering. "Now that's a stupid question. As an innocent person, I'd say 'no', and if I were guilty, I wouldn't be dumb enough to admit it." As he was answering, Robin noted that he cringed for a moment, for no apparent reason.

"He does have a point Robin," Cyborg said. He seemed at ease, but his right arm was a sonic cannon right now, rather than a normal hand. Robin's intent in asking the question wasn't supposed to get the answer, though. Robin asked in order to get the man to think about it, so that Raven could lift the truth out of the stranger's mind. Having an empath was very useful when questioning a person.

Robin looked over at Raven, questioningly. His hopes where dashed, though, when she answered with merely a shrug. Robin, unlike the rest of the team, knew that Raven's power had limits. She could pick up emotions, but not really thoughts. As a result, she sometimes couldn't tell for sure if a person was lying or not. Robin sighed. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I'm Robin, this is Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, and if you didn't already know, that's Raven."

"Very well, Robin, you and the others may call me Ashur."

"Okay Ashur, but I have to ask you about something. If you didn't rob the bank, why was there someone matching your description there?" Robin heard the other Titans sigh as he asked the question. Was it really that wrong for a superhero to ask if the person he's conversing with was a wanted criminal?

"Would you know anything about it if someone matching your description robbed a bank?" Ashur answered the question with one of his own. Robin was starting to wonder if he could get any straight answers from the giant. Right at that moment, everyone's communicator went off. Robin glanced at his quickly.

"Trouble! Light's escaped, and is robbing a jewelry store," Robin announced as he lifted his arms for Starfire to pick him up by.

"Saved by the bell," Beast Boy said to Ashur, just before turning into a giant pterodactyl. The changeling picked up Cyborg, and flew toward the city, just as Robin felt Starfire pick him up by his wrists.

As the five of them flew toward the city, Robin wasn't sure who he felt more sorry for: Beast Boy, for having to carry the heaviest member of the team, or Cyborg, for being carried by a giant lizard, rather than a pretty alien princess. Robin noticed that the winged man was flying beside him, keeping pace easily. "This will be dangerous! Go back to the tower and wait!" Robin shouted imperiously.

Ashur just laughed a moment. "I can put myself into danger if I damn-well please. I'm going unless you physically drag me back; and I doubt you're willing to waste the time to do that."

Robin grumbled, but otherwise kept quiet for the rest of the short flight. Soon, he was placed gently on the ground in front of a blasted-looking jewelry store. "You cannot defeat Doctor Light!" was heard from within.

Robin was about to charge in when Ashur blocked his path. "How about you let me try? The worst that could happen is he kills me and thereby tells you just how strong he is," the stranger said. Robin and everyone else just looked at him strangely. _Is he serious?_

"No, this isn't your problem. It's my job to protect civilians like you," Robin said in a tone that brooked no argument.

"Whatever. I want to see if I can take this guy by myself, rather than in a five-on-one battle," the large man said in a demeaning tone. "I acknowledge that I could be hurt, I just don't care," he said as he started for the gaping hole that had once been a doorway. Robin started to follow, but was stopped by his voice. "You win either way. Either Light is captured without you having to work, or I'm killed and you have one less suspected bank robber to deal with."

"Fine. Go," Robin reluctantly agreed. As much as he hated to admit it, Ashur was right. Why risk his friends when he could risk a likely criminal? Regardless, Robin didn't want to make his allies waste effort keeping the winged man out of the battle. It would violate one of the first lessons Batman had taught him: when outnumbered, you must divide your adversaries; that is the key to winning. It would be pure foolishness to divide their strength for nothing.

"This is a really bad idea," Cyborg said as he started for the door. "I'm going to watch, and I'll step in to make sure that no one gets killed." Robin followed Cyborg, and the others followed him.

Robin watched as the giant silently strode forward. "With these focusing crystals, I'm unstoppable!" Light shouted. Ashur ignored him as he continued his menacing advance. Dr. Light's suit was newly made, the old one having been destroyed when he was captured two days ago. The new suit was poorly made, and looked as if it had been patched together from the scraps Light could find in the prison. Regardless, the doctor fired multiple bolts at the giant, as Robin and the others watched.

Most of the beams flew past Ashur's unflinching head, but two connected. One beam hit the advancing giant in the chest, but Robin couldn't tell what it did to him because he could only see Ashur's back. Regardless, it had less overall effect than the other blast, which hit the winged man's leg, and almost tripped him. _Dr. Light might be a challenge, but not until he learns how to aim_, Robin thought. _For that matter, Light might be a challenge if he was a bit smarter. The shot to the chest did nothing, but the leg shot almost stopped Ashur's advance. So, like an idiot, Light keeps aiming for the chest._

Light shot a few more blasts before Ashur reached him, but none of them hit. Overall, the giant's style reminded Robin of Cinderblock, which is to say, utterly graceless. Cinderblock just walked forward, ignoring the attacks against him, and tried to smash stuff. Ashur looked to fight the same way. he moved not only as if he'd never had martial arts training, but as if he didn't care that he was being shot at.

As Ashur reached Light, he grabbed the man's shoulder with one hand, and pulled the much smaller man forward as he drove his fist through the suit's main light. The doctor made an "oof" noise as the wind was knocked out of him, and had a disbelieving look on his face. After that, the winged man began breaking the other lights one by one. As Robin watched he was forced to adjust his opinion a bit. Ashur struck in a calm, businesslike manner, but twisted himself to put all of his body into each blow. That was the mark of martial training.

Martial training or no, Robin saw that Ashur wasn't unscathed. The jagged remains of the lights had cut the giant's hands until they constantly dripped blood. Ignoring the blood, as he had the laser blasts, Ashur grabbed the neck-hole of the suit with both hands, and began pulling them apart. Robin had to cover his ears against the scream of ripping metal as Light's suit was torn in half. Light himself spilled out of the ruined suit, and curled up like a hermit crab without its shell. "No, please," Light gibbered in terror as Ashur reached for him.

"Help me!" Light screamed, pleading for Robin to intervene. He looked like he was about to continue, but his words were cut off as Ashur grabbed his throat and lifted him into the air. The giant held the pitiful villain in his left hand, and drew back his right for a punch that would surely tear the doctor's head from the rest of his body. Robin watched, unable to intervene, just as one couldn't look away from a train-wreck in progress.

"Stop!" Cyborg shouted at Ashur, snapping Robin out of his momentary trance. The Boy wonder was actually surprised on some level when the winged man complied, letting his huge fist relax and fall to his side.

"Very well," the giant said as he off-handedly threw Dr. Light to the floor. "But you are responsible for everything else he does," Ashur said as he turned to face the Titans, who where all still near the entrance. Now that he had turned, Robin could see what the laser to the chest had done. For all that it was ignored, Ashur had a large, blackened, and bleeding wound covering most of his chest. _Yet he acts as though he doesn't feel it. Maybe it's the adrenaline_, Robin thought. _He'll feel it when he calms down_.

"Are you alright?" Robin asked, ignoring the man curled up in the fetal position.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Ashur said curtly. "But I have a question. Was it worth it?"

"Huh?" Robin questioned, just as Beast Boy asked, "What's he talking about?"

"Behind the counter, the clerk is dead. His throat was slashed on the broken glass that used to be a display case. Evidently that worm's," Ashur gestured at Dr. Light, who was still cowering, "lasers were too weak to kill even an ordinary human, so he improvised. My question is if it was worth it. That clerk is dead because you didn't kill Light last time you caught him."

Now Robin understood. He cast down his eyes guiltily, and kept quiet. Everyone else did the same as they let Ashur continue his rant. "Light escaped the last time you spared him, and all the only 'good' to come of it is one death and a few thousand dollars in damages. So I want to know if you think it was a good deal. Let a career criminal live, at the price of an innocent kid's life."

"It's not that simple!" Starfire shouted as she took a step toward the winged man.

"We're not killing Dr. Light," Cyborg said, as if it were final.

"I'm not trying to force you," Ashur said. "I just want to know if you think it was a good trade the last time you let this man live."

"Everyone deserves a chance to change," Robin said. "I didn't know that Light would escape, or that he would kill another. If I knew for certain, I might have chosen differently, but as it was, Light was as likely to leave crime behind as he was to return to it. At the time of the 'deal' my choice was to kill someone, or try to save him. I took a gamble and lost."

At this point, Ashur did something none of them expected; he smiled. He dropped his confrontational stance, and said, "Well spoken. But there's one thing I want you to do."

"What?" Robin asked, curious.

"I want you to find this clerk's family, and tell them of your choice. Tell them that their son, or brother, is dead because you tried to save someone else. And then tell them that you let his killer live, because you still thought you could save him."

Robin choked a bit, but then agreed solemnly. Sirens were approaching in the distance

"Good. If you are to take the noble path, you must accept responsibility for your actions. The police are here. They can handle Light. I intend to leave," the giant said as he started for the door. Robin and the others filed out of the blasted shop ahead of him.

Outside, the glare of daylight came as a surprise. Though the confrontation had only lasted a few minutes, but the fact that it was still morning came as a shock to Robin. Police were already surrounding the building, and a few reporters had started snapping photos. Robin raised his voice, "Dr. Light is inside, he's not a threat to you right now. I trust you can take it from here?" He said to the police.

Behind him, Robin heard Raven ask Ashur, "Are you okay? I can heal you."

Robin felt a pang of jealousy that Raven was concerned about this newcomer, but pushed it out of his mind. Just because she offered to heal him didn't mean that Raven loved Ashur. Robin quietly laughed at himself. Ashur was the one in need of healing, not him. He probably would've found it somehow wrong if Raven had asked if he were okay and ignored the winged man. _Stupid emotions_, he thought. _Once you find that you like someone, every little thing seems like something to be jealous over_.

"No thanks. I'm fine," Ashur said calmly as he held up a cut hand. "See, the bleeding's already stopped. In two days, even the scar will be gone."

"Robin, is it true that the Teen Titans have a new ally against supervillains?" A reporter asked. She was merely the first of about five that had pushed their way through the police perimeter.

"What's that man's name?"

"Was he instrumental in stopping Dr. Light?"

"Are his injuries serious?"

The questions just kept on coming. Most of them were about Ashur, but not all. Robin thought he might actually have to answer when he felt Starfire's arms wrap around his middle. "You'll have to ask him yourself," he said light heartedly as he was flown back to the tower. They couldn't, though, because the six-winged man was already flying away, just behind Beast Boy and Cyborg.

- - - - - - - - -

At the tower, Robin held out a communicator to Ashur. "You did a great job, today. How would you like to be a Teen Titan?"

"A Titan," Ashur said thoughtfully. "According to the Greeks, the Titans were the fathers of the Gods. They had ruled the world in absolute power, for millennia. But then, there was a war between them and the Gods, and the Titans were cast down. A few were imprisoned for all eternity, but most were killed for their crimes against the Gods."

Ashur reached toward the communicator, and closed Robin's fingers around it. "I must refuse. I think I'm a bit old to be a 'teen' titan."

Robin seemed a bit surprised, "An offer to be a Titan, not many are given the chance."

"Sorry. I'm not a good enough person to be a superhero," Ashur confirmed his refusal, and stepped toward the edge of the roof. "Good-bye. I'm sure we'll meet again," the winged giant said as he flew back toward the city.

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That, my imaginary audience, is called foreshadowing. In case you didn't guess, this chapter represents a major turning point in the story. I like this chapter, but at the same time don't. It's just that I don't think I can write well enough to do this chapter justice. I hope you enjoyed that this chapter is 30 longer than the others.

I would've had this chapter up sooner, but I don't post one chapter until the next is already written. It prevents plot holes, and let's me do a much better job at editing myself than if I did otherwise. Overall, it would result in you getting these at the same rate, but the next chapter is long. 4,000 words. Not much compared to the books Japhith writes, but about twice as long as the chapters I've been writing.

Since this is the first chapter that I wrote since starting to upload the story, I figure I ought to do some reviewer responses. These are mostly for show, because I already replied to them privately.

**Poison Tonic LX: **Thanks! You're the first person to review my story, and that's probably just because I asked you to read it. Just the same, I'm glad you like it.

**Grim40k:** I was actually wondering what people would think of me introducing a new major character. It seems like such a diversion from the TT universe that I was wondering if I'd get flamed for it.

**vampirehunterD-lover:** I was mostly disturbed by similarities in how I've conceived the story to be. The similarities probably aren't visible to any of you readers because I haven't written that part yet. I think you should continue your story. It has potential, and overall, should turn out very different from yours. Besides, I shouldn't care if I write something that turns out like something another person wrote. After all, aren't all of use 'copying' from the TT universe?

**Wild Fantasy:** Sweet! I made it into someone's favorite list! That's a definite sign I'm doing something right. And yes, I'm acting as an editor for Mysterious Boy Wonder Robin. I'm actually not used to editing for other people. When I edit my own stuff, I can change whatever I feel like. But when I edit another's work, I can't change nearly as much because it'd be a lie to say I'm not re-writing the story.

Thanks all! I'll probably have the next chapter up in a week. It's about twice as long as the others I've been writing, so you'd better like it.


	6. Chapter 5

**Isa:** Hello again. Robin didn't much like saying the disclaimer last time, he said all sorts of horrible things after you left. So, I've decided that I'll have Starfire say it today.

**Star:** Huh? What am I supposed to do?

**Isa: **You're supposed to tell the readers that I don't own you, or the other Titans.

**Star:** But didn't you just tell them?

**Isa:** (sigh) Just say the disclaimer. If you do, I'll make sure you get some action with Robin.

**Star: **I don't understand. Robin and I are frequently in action scenes...

**Isa: **(muted whispering)...

**Star:** (blushing) Oh. Isa Lumitus doesn't own Teen Titans! 3

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Cyborg heard the whole exchange between Ashur and Robin. _What is Robin thinking?_ Cyborg wondered. It seemed Robin was now willing to give out a communicator to just about anyone. As it was, Cyborg was worried about his own membership on the team. With all of Robin's obsessive studying, he'd soon know more about technology than the man partially composed of it. Without that niche to fill, all Cyborg would be good for is fighting, and all his power at that came from his mechanical prosthetics. It would soon be in Robin's ability to make an army of robots from the same parts that Cyborg himself was composed of. Robin could handle the technology, and he'd have a swarm of machines that stopped villains as well as Cyborg did, but without questioning the Boy Wonder's leadership.

Cyborg sighed, and pushed open the door between the stairwell and the roof. _As long as I'm part of the team, though, I may as well make sure Robin doesn't do something stupid. And as long as I'm here, I should enjoy the company of people that don't shrink away from my metal body_, he thought. Cyborg considered Robin a friend, but worried that the Boy Wonder got tired of his constant questioning.

"What the hell were you thinking, man?" Cyborg demanded as he stalked up to Robin. "That guy just showed up, almost killed a man, derided us for stopping him, and you want to make him a Titan? You're supposed to consult the rest of the team about things like this!"

"I haven't forgotten that Ashur could be a bank robber, Cyborg," Robin said calmly. "However, the only evidence of his wrongdoing is Rancid's testimony. Even Raven couldn't determine if he was guilty or not."

"So you decide to make him a member of the team?"

"The only way we'll find out if he's done wrong is if we catch him in a different crime," Robin reasoned. "By the way, did you know that all the communicators have tracking devices built in? Using the main computer, we can track every one of them no matter where they are in the world," Robin said, sarcastically. Of course Cyborg knew all that, he was the one that built the communicators.

"That's why you offered him one?" the metal man asked incredulously. "You make it sound like a bad thing to carry one of them around."

"Well, I think he could be a useful member of the team, and I figured that this would also be the easiest way to keep track of what he does."

"Still, you should've consulted the rest of us," Cyborg said adamantly.

The Boy Wonder just sighed. "All right. I'll ask everyone else first next time."

- - - - -

Ashur looked around the lab he had bought. It was small, and understocked for his purposes, but still far more expensive than he could afford. Instead of paying for the lab outright, Ashur had to pay for it the same way a normal person bought a house, through mortgage. One million dollars as a down payment, half a million to buy raw supplies, a quarter million for next month's payment, and the last quarter million as emergency funds.

Ashur looked at the machine he was developing. If it worked, he'd be rich enough to get all the other equipment he'd ever want. If it didn't, his business would fail, and he'd have to get the money through other means. He'd prefer not to do that, though, as repeatedly robbing banks wasn't the best way to keep one's freedom.

The machine was designed to aid in the synthesis of complex chemicals. Specifically, the chemicals it was to produce were too complex to make outside of living things. Living things could make far more complex of chemicals because they made them one molecule at a time. Human chemists, on the other hand, had little control over reactions because they made billions of molecules in one reaction. The machine duplicated the processes of special bacteria, and allowed the synthesis of any molecule with fewer than one-hundred-fifty carbons. Or at least, that's what the machine would do once Ashur got it to work. For now, it could only produce molecules of twenty carbon atoms or less, and those were already on the common market for half the price of using Ashur's machine to produce them.

Ashur sighed, tired of working today. As predicted, his hands had almost completely healed the scars from yesterday's battle with Dr. Light. The winged man stood, and walked to the lab's office. Well, it had once been an office, anyway. Now, it was empty except for a pile of blankets on the floor. _That's pitiful_, he thought to himself, _I spend one and a half million dollars on a lab, with another half-million in the bank, but sleep on a hard tile floor_.

- - - - -

_I stood in a large, domed chamber. The ceiling was a pale blue, almost like a lightly clouded day. I couldn't see where the dome met the floor, though, as it was obscured by a mist. The white mist completely surrounded me, and kept me from seeing anything more than about twenty feet away. I looked down at myself._

_I seemed to be an average person. Though I'm a guy, my hair is long enough for me to see it, but not long enough to tie back. The locks in my vision are fairly straight, and a plain brown in color. Overall, I'm nothing special, just a guy in a strange room. Getting bored, I started walking, the direction didn't seem to matter._

_After I traveled for a while I saw a darker patch ahead. The first thing I'd seen besides featureless mist and plain white flooring. As I approached, the dark patch resolved itself into three thinner patches. Those three patches then became tall men wearing dark suits. They wore sunglasses, though it wasn't bright, and gave off an aura of menace._

_As I continued to approach the three men, the middle one stepped forward, and greeted me. He looked the same as the other two men, who remained silent. I returned the greeting, fighting down the urge to run like a scared little girl. I knew that this was a bad idea, perhaps the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life._

"_Enough chat," the group's spokesman said in a slow, gravelly voice. "You know why you're here. You seek a deal," the man said that last bit with a slight tone of amusement._

"_Correct," I said. This was just like any other business deal. I calmed myself, and took on a professional tone. "I already know the rules, we can skip that part. I want..."_

_The man heard the rest of what I said, though my words had become fuzzy to me. The left side of his face took on an evil smirk. "We can do that. But it'll take time. You'll have to give up some things before we can give you all of that, too. We'll take..." The man's words grew fuzzy, just as mine had before. Yet at the same time, I seemed to know what had been said._

How bad could it be?_ I wondered. One thing they'd take didn't exist, One was something I didn't want to have, and the last was something I could get back after they fulfilled their part of the bargain. And I didn't need to worry about getting scammed; this bargain couldn't be broken. If they failed to fulfil their end, I'd get back what they took._

"_So," the man said, as he extended his right hand. "Do we have a deal?"_

_Against the screaming of my conscience, I reached out and took his hand with my right. "Bargain struck," I said, just before electricity shot into me._

- - - - -

Ashur woke with a start, trying to banish the feeling of utter horror that consumed him. It soon went away, as the winged man had gotten practice at it. He'd had that dream every night, and woke this way every morning. He stood, and stretched as widely as he could in the small room. His wings brushed the walls and his elbows touched the ceiling before he stalked out of the room in annoyance.

Ashur looked at the machine. The concept worked, and he knew what needed to be done, but didn't feel like starting yet. _Now that I've worked out the hard part, I just have a week of monotonous labor ahead of me before I can start making a profit_. Ashur walked out of the lab, muttering about "tedious monkey work."

Outside, Ashur managed a full stretch before taking to the sky. He figured he'd drop in on the Titans this morning, uninvited, as he had last time. The flight through the cold morning air felt good, even if it was too early for thermals. Without thermals (rising columns of air, caused by heat on the ground), the winged man had to work fairly hard to keep himself above the mist that still clung to the sea.

Ashur landed at the tower just as the sun started blasting the fog off the island. As he had the last time he was here, he began pounding on the door, fairly loudly. Inside the tower, Ashur heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He kept up the knocking, though, just because he found the thump of his fist on the metal pleasing.

The door opened to reveal Cyborg, who tried to look intimidating. As with Rancid, it might have worked, except he only came up tp the winged man's shoulder. "Good morning!" Ashur said cheerfully. He choose that tone just because it was probably the most annoying thing he could have done right then.

"Ashur? What are you doing here?" Cyborg asked as he relaxed from his not-quite-intimidating pose. "It's too early for anyone to be that happy." the half-machine stepped aside, and sighed. "I guess you might as well come in. There'll be coffee in a few minutes, though you hardly seem to need it."

Ashur and Cyborg entered the tower, and took an elevator up to a higher level. Cyborg had complained that it was early, but Raven was sitting in a ray of morning light, reading, and Robin was already sitting in front of a computer. "What was that all about?" Robin asked without looking back.

"Good-day to all on this fine morning!" Ashur cheerfully said in his loud voice, shattering the peace of the morning.

"Ugh," Raven said without looking up from her book. "Who would've thought he'd be like a male version of Starfire?"

"Hmm?" Starfire herself questioned. She had evidently just woken up, and come out to see what the commotion was about. She looked about, judged the expressions on everyone's faces, then smiled. "Oh. Happy morning, friends!" She shouted in her own annoyingly cute voice.

"I take it back," Raven muttered. "Nothing ruins a peaceful morning quite like that."

"I think I'll go train," Robin stated flatly as an excuse to leave the growing mass of people in the main room. The boy wonder left for the elevatro to go to the lower floor. Cyborg followed suit, and Ashur and Starfire decided to follow. As he looked back, Ashur thought Raven looked kind of pleased, but didn't know if it was because he and Starfire had livened the morning, or because they were leaving.

The training room took up a full floor of the tower. In one corner there was a group of exercise machines, but most of the space was filled with mats and obstacles for sparring. Robin and Cyborg walked out onto the mats and took up fighting stances, obviously intending to spar before the Tofu/Meat argument.

"Wait," Ashur called out just before they leapt at each other. "I'd like to try." Cyborg and Robin looked at each other, and something unsaid passed between them.

"Alright," Robin obliged. "Who do you want to spar against?"

"I was thinking I'd try both of you, since I have an unfair advantage being the only one truly awake," Ashur said with a grin. Starfire looked confused, since neither Robin nor Cyborg looked tired anymore.

"Whoa," Cyborg joked. "I think someone's gotten a bit full of himself for single-handedly taking down an under-equipped second-rate villain like Dr. Light."

"No matter," Robin said as he ducked into a fighting stance.

"It's your funeral," Cyborg said as Ashur threw a roundhouse kick at his head. It might have hurt, but the half-android easily ducked it. Ashur set his foot back down in such a way that he had effectively stepped between the two Titans, turning so that one was to the left, and one to the right..

Most people would say that the maneuver was one of the worst tactical mistakes a person could make. By stepping between his two opponents, Ashur had guaranteed that he wouldn't be able to watch both at once. Further, Ashur had almost three more feet of reach than the Titans, but had stepped in close, so close that he couldn't put much force into his blows. Critics of the technique, however, would be surprised at what happened next.

Since Ashur was too close for his two opponents to attack, they were forced to stumble back. The giant had expected this, and suddenly stretched his wings, slamming them into the Titans. The two teens, already off balance, were easily thrown back ten feet, where they landed on their backs. The two got up quickly, Cyborg shouting, "That was a really cheap trick!" Ashur merely shrugged and tried to drop a heel kick onto his shoulder.

Cyborg caught the kick, and tried to throw the giant onto his back, but Ashur just flapped his wings and landed on his feet. Just then, Ashur heard _zing!_ noise, and realized that he'd been ignoring Robin. Ashur could hear the projectile, but ignored it because he already knew it would miss. Instead, he spun around and tried to punch at the boy wonder. Ashur watched as Robin back-flipped away, trailing a cord. _Fuck!_, he thought as he felt the cord wrap around his left wings. _It was _supposed_ to miss me!_

Ashur grabbed the cord as Robin threw down a small bomb. Just as it was exploding, Robin tried to pull his opponent into the blast. At the same time, Ashur was twisting away, trying to pull Robin off his feet. It was a tug-of-war that the winged man easily won, whereupon he swung the boy wonder like a flail into Cyborg's side. Ashur then raised the cord to his face, and tore through it with a savage bite.

When Robin collided with Cyborg, the half machine had caught him easily, and threw the boy wonder into the air over Ashur's head. Ashur raised his arms to try to catch Robin's legs, but he was hit in the chest by a blue-white beam. The impact from the sonic cannon threw Ashur back almost twenty feet, and he could swear that his ribs were broken.

The winged man stood. Despite the piercing pain in his chest, he was about to lunge back into the fight when an angry voice halted him.

"Stop!" Raven yelled. "All of you stop!" As the others relaxed, Ashur was relieved to see that he wasn't the only person out of breath and cradling injuries. "This is supposed to be practice, not trying to kill each other," Raven said, glaring at Cyborg in particular.

Cyborg looked down at his arm, and the power output he'd set the cannon to. Then he looked up at Ashur, sheepishly, and said, "Sorry about that, looks like I got a little carried away. You alright?"

Ashur grinned, then replied, "Yeah. I didn't think sound waves could do that, but I'm able to stand. Are the two of you okay?" the two titans nodded, though Robin was slowly bleeding from a cut on his chest. The edges of Ashur's feathers were sharp.

"Here, let me see if your insides are injured," Raven said, managing to sound almost caring. To Ashur, she still sounded cold, but the other titans were surprised that she had any tenderness in her voice. The sorceress stepped up, and touched a finger to Ashur's chest. There was a black spark, and the giant flinched backward. Raven didn't seem to notice. "That's strange," she said. "Most of your ribs are broken in multiple places, yet you're able to stand and move your arms," she explained, and muttered under her breath about secondary internal supports for the chest cavity.

Cyborg looked a bit pained on hearing about the broken bones, and said, "Look, man, I'm sorry,"

Ashur held his hands out to the team, "Don't worry, if the cuts on my hands are any indication, my ribs will be fine in about eight hours," Ashur paused a moment, then continued in a regretful voice, "I guess that means I should set them in the next five minutes." With that, the winged man took a deep breath. He intended to build up pressure inside his chest to push the bones outward and into place. Suddenly a tentacle of shadow reached out and smacked the side of his head.

"Don't be an idiot," Raven said calmly. "Doing that's a great way to give yourself a lung piercing," she said in a deadpan tone. "Here, let me do it," the half-demon said as she once again closed the distance between herself and Ashur. She placed a finger to him again, and produced another black spark. Once again, Ashur flinched back, shuddering a bit. Raven raised an eyebrow, "Something the matter?"

"The touch of your power seems very familiar, but I can't place where I've felt it before," Ashur said, trying not to sound as if he was afraid of the magic. No one else understood what Ashur suddenly smiled about._ An eight foot giant, cringing in fear from a little girl half his size. Pitiful_, he thought. "Thanks for resetting the bones, I think-," Ashur was cut off by an overhead speaker carrying Beast Boy's voice.

"Good morning everyone. I've prepared a nice, _vegetarian_ breakfast. Anyone feel like having some?"

At this announcement, Cyborg starting hopping around angrily, "No fair!" he shouted at the speaker in the ceiling. "You'd better be out of the kitchen when I get up there! We're having meat for breakfast!"

"TOFU!" the speaker shouted back, more loudly than Cyborg could manage without using an amplifier. Cyborg ran out of the training room. Ashur looked at Robin and Raven, a question on his lips. Robin just shrugged, while Raven rolled her eyes.

- - - - -

Cyborg sat down at the table with the other Titans, as well as Ashur. They had decided to invite him for breakfast, and he had accepted. Ashur seated himself on the floor, since that put him at about the same height as everyone else. Cyborg noted that Ashur was careful as he sat down. The half-machine quickly deduced that while Ashur had allowed Raven to set his bones, he hadn't let her actually heal them.

Cyborg piled his plate high with sausage, eggs, and small meat paddies. BB was filling his plate with the opposite, and Starfire had made something herself. Raven and Robin avoided Beast Boy's tofu, but felt that his hash browns went well with the eggs Cyborg had made. They all watched Ashur, wondering what the giant would choose.

Ashur grinned at everyone, then spooned up a bowl of something that looked like neon-purple jello. Cyborg grinned as he watched the winged man take a spoonful; no one really understood how bad Star's cooking was until they had actually tried it. Ashur put the spoonful into his mouth, and chewed with agonizing slowness before swallowing. The whole time, is face betrayed no expression.

Ashur smiled, "Not too bad. You could have warned me that it tastes like something I'd make in a lab, but it's still pretty good," Everyone's jaws dropped. Was he being serious, or just trying to joke? "But I think it could use something. If you'll excuse me," the giant politely excused himself and carried his bowl into the kitchen.

Inside the kitchen, Cyborg was the only one that could see what Ashur was doing. The metal man was surprised to see that Ashur wasn't doing anything to the stuff Starfire had made. Rather, he seemed to be making himself a drink, though even Cyborg couldn't see what the drink was from his angle. As Ashur walked back, he held his bowl, as well as a glass of what looked like milk.

The winged man set down his bowl before spooning up another, smaller bowl. Still holding his drink, Ashur carried the bowl over, and set it in front of Beast Boy. "Here, why don't you try it?" he asked as he stood across from Cyborg.

"Uh... no thanks," Beast Boy tried to decline. "Why do you want me to try it anyway? Why not Robin?"

"Because, as a vegetarian, you must be tired of eating the same flavorless stuff everyday. Don't tell me you wouldn't like something besides tofu, beans, and rice," Ashur said. To Cyborg, he sounded exactly like a used car salesman. Beast Boy was about to protest, when the giant leaned down to whisper something in the changeling's ear. "Besides, don't you want to show Starfire and Raven that you're brave enough to do something that even Cyborg and Robin won't try?" Ashur's words were too quiet for anyone else but Cyborg to hear.

As Ashur was whispering, he took Beast Boy's glass of milk, and replaced it with whatever he'd mixed up in the kitchen. Cyborg glared at him, but had to fight back a grin. Ashur merely smiled, and winked.

"Alright, I'll try it," Beast Boy announced. Cyborg shook his head at how easily the changeling had been manipulated. Beast Boy took a calming breath, then put almost half of what Ashur had served into his mouth. Suddenly, the changeling's mouth puckered, and his eyes started watering. BB spit out the alien jello, and made a number of odd sounds as everyone else laughed. Fairly quickly, the changeling realized that the best way to get rid of the taste would be to wash it out. So, of course, he reached for the glass that looked like it held milk, but didn't really.

As Beast Boy tried to drain the glass, his eyes widened. Quickly setting down the glass, a large amount of foam burst from his mouth.

"Gaaahhhh!" Ashur said in poorly mocked fright as he backed away from the green kid. "He's got rabies! Everyone get back!" the giant called out as he continued to back up. Ashur then tripped over a chair, and fell to the ground. To Cyborg's eyes, the fall looked pretty deliberate. Just the same, he joined everyone else in laughing even harder.

"Ugh. Not funny, dude," Beast boy complained as he tried to wipe the foam from his mouth. Ashur had gotten up easily and returned to his place at the table.

"What are the rabies?" Starfire asked as Ashur ate another spoonful of the purple jello.

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You have no idea how hard it was to write this chapter. For some reason, the words just didn't want to come onto the page. You might even be able to tell a difference from the normal writing. I think that this is the first chapter that wasn't somehow important to the story, yet it's longer than all the others so far.

In case any of you were wondering, the 'milk' was laced with a very large amount of baking soda. The jello was just really sour... Anyone ever mix baking soda with lemon juice?

Sorry it had taken so long to update. The term has really picked up, here. I really hate work...


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